Beowulfian Archetypes: The Case of Hrómundr Gripsson

Keywords:

• Old English
• Old Norse
• Beowulf
• Analogue

The discussion of the origins and development of the Beowulf story has traditionally accorded a special place to the story of Böðvarr bjarki (‘little bear’). Medieval Scandinavian sources, both Latin and Old Norse, tell us that Bjarki comes from overseas to Hleiðargarðr (modern-day Gammel Lejre, Denmark) and slays a monster or monsters in the service of the Scylding king Hrólfr, Beowulf’s Hroðulf. This curious parallel has been taken as a sign that the basic template for Beowulf’s career existed in Scandinavian tradition and was adopted by the Anglo-Saxon poet for his epic (Grant 2024). However, Bjarki’s monster-fight(s) are not the only feature of this tradition which support the above contention. ‘There is,’ writes R. W. Chambers, ‘one further piece of evidence which seems to clinch the whole matter finally’ (1959, 60). This is that Bjarki, much like Beowulf, goes on to aid Aðils (Beowulf’s Eadgils) in his fight against Áli (or Onela). It is the concurrence of these two feats—Bjarki’s slaying a monster at the Scylding court and his involvement in the wars of these Swedish kings—which qualifies the value of this tradition within Beowulf studies. Assuming that these two accolades did not accrue to both Bjarki and Beowulf by chance, it seems reasonable to conclude that these figures represent independent developments of an earlier character archetype (Grant 2024). In other words, the Beowulf poet sourced at least part of his hero’s career from preexisting legend.

The Bjarki story is not in fact unique in Scandinavian tradition for preserving this narrative pattern. The same configuration of features also occurs in legendary accounts of the Norwegian monster-slayer Hrómundr Gripsson. The legend of Hrómundr is no new Beowulf analogue: Friedrich Panzer noted in 1910 the similarity between Hrómundr’s battle with the mound-dweller Þráinn and Grettir Ásmundarson’s fight with Kárr, both episodes which bear comparison with Beowulf’s fight with Grendel’s mother (Panzer 1910, 325). J. Michael Stitt provided a translation of Hrómundr’s battle with Þráinn in his 1992 collection of Scandinavian ‘Bear’s Son’ analogues to Beowulf (Stitt 1992, 139–42). In 2003 Andy Orchard provided the text and translation of the Þráinn fight in order to exemplify the links between Beowulf and the important collection of Old Norse ‘Two-Troll’ stories first described by Peter Jorgensen (Orchard 2003, 124; Jorgensen 1975).

Existing commentary makes exclusive reference to Hrómundar saga Gripssonar (‘The Saga of Hrómundr Gripsson’). Despite its survival in exclusively post-medieval manuscripts, this text was long considered a medieval fornaldarsaga (‘saga of ancient time’) and was therefore included in Carl Christian Rafn’s seminal collection (1829, 363–80). However, Hrómundar saga is now known to be a post-medieval prose adaptation of Griplur, a fourteenth-century poetic cycle of rímur (or ‘fitts’) concerning Hrómundr Gripsson (Kapitan 2021, 259–64). Griplur is itself an adaptation of an earlier saga about Hrómundr which no longer survives, but which is referred to elsewhere. The thirteenth-century text Þorgils saga ok Hafliða (‘The Saga of Þorgils and Hafliði’) mentions that just such a saga was recited at a wedding held at Reykjahólar in Iceland in 1119. This account mentions some of the key features of the Hrómundr legend, such as the hero’s slaying of Þráinn and his association with the Norwegian Óláfr liðsmannakonungr (‘king of warriors’), which would come to be repeated in Griplur.

The present paper discusses the relationship between Beowulf and the medieval Griplur, rather than the derivative Hrómundar saga. It proceeds in three phases. First, the structural and verbal parallels between Hrómundr’s battle with Þráinn and Beowulf’s struggle with Grendel’s mother are set out. The significance of Hrómundr’s intervention in his liege’s wars in Sweden is then considered. In closing, this paper considers the value of the Hrómundr tradition to the discussion of Beowulf’s origins and development.

Hrómundr’s conflict with Þráinn

The first part of the story which concerns us is Hrómundr’s battle with the draugr (‘revenant’) Þráinn. As previous treatments have acknowledged, this episode presents numerous structural parallels with Beowulf’s fight with Grendel’s mother which are the result of these accounts’ shared basis in folktale. Hrómundr and his men take four days to descend into Þráinn’s mound and at length espy the interior:

Drengir gengu að dǫkkum haugi dagana fjóra,

kátir gátu komið á ljóra,

og kenna þenna galdra stjóra (II.50).¹

The warriors got to the dark burial chamber on the fourth day; the joyful ones managed to reach the opening in the roof. They recognised that ruler of magic [Þráinn].

Beowulf, similarly, takes a large part of the day to reach and recognize the bottom of the mere: ‘Ða wæs hwil dæges | ær he þone grundwong ongytan mehte’ (1495b–1496b; ‘It was a long while before he could perceive the bottom’).² Both are related reflexes of the ‘descent’ episode which is central to the ‘Bear’s Son’ folktale (Stitt 1992, 24).

When Hrómundr enters the subterranean space, he sees a fire burning at Þráinn’s feet: ‘funi var millum fóta hans’ (III.5; ‘a fire was between his legs’). The presence of a fire in the foe’s dwelling is a common feature of Scandinavian Beowulf analogues, and parallels the fire burning in the mere: ‘fyrleoht geseah, | blacne leoman beorhte scinan’ (1516b–1517b; ‘He saw the light of a fire, a luminous glow shining brightly’).

Hrómundr inspects the burial chamber, and sees an ancient sword hanging within:

Sverð á einum súlustaf

sér hann uppi hanga,

sá mun bjóða berserk af,

er bregður gramnum langa (III.9).

He saw a sword hanging up on a column. He would deprive the berserker of that—he who long wielded the sword.

Brigðill fanz ei betri neinn,

en brandrinn þessi fráni;

það er enn mæti Mistilteinn,

mart lið veitti Þráni (III.10).

No better weapon could be found than this gleaming sword. That was the precious Mistilteinn (‘Mistletoe’); much help did it grant Þráinn.

Beowulf similarly mentions a sword hanging in the space beneath the mere when recounting his deeds to Hroðgar: ‘ic on wage geseah | wlitig hangian ealdsweord eacen’ (1662a–1663a; ‘I saw a sword wondrously old hanging fair on the wall’).

Before Hrómundr fights the unarmed Þráinn, the draugr tells him that it would be dishonorable for the hero to use a sword, expressing his wish to compete in strength instead. Hrómundr thereupon casts his sword aside:³

Hrómund kastar hrotta þá,

handa afli treysti (III.27).

Hrómundr threw away the sword then [and] trusted in the strength of his hands.

Beowulf similarly discards his sword, though this is due to its ineffectiveness rather than the hero’s sense of decorum. The description of Beowulf’s trusting in the might of his hands resembles the above stanza from Griplur closely:

‘wearp ða wundenmæl   wrættum gebunden

yrre oretta,  þæt hit on eorðan læg,

stið ond stylecg;   strenge getruwode,

mundgripe mægenes’ (1531a–1534a).

The wroth warrior then cast the patterned sword, inlaid with ornamentation, so that it lay on the earth, hard and steel-edged; he trusted in strength, the might of his hand-grip.

The heroes’ forsaking their swords is followed in both narratives by a lengthy wrestling match. Hrómundr brings this to an end by taking up Þráinn’s sword, Mistilteinn, and hewing at his foe’s neck:

Mætan reiddi Mistiltein

af miklu orkuláni.

Hjó hann í sundur hálsins bein,

hǫfuðið fauk af Þráni (III.57).

‘He raised the precious Mistilteinn with much borrowed strength. He chopped the neck-bone asunder; the head flew from Þráinn’.

Beowulf similarly hews at the neck of Grendel’s mother with her own sword. Much as in Griplur, there is specific commentary on the hero’s blade passing through the bones of his foe’s neck:

He gefeng þa fetelhilt,  freca Scyldinga,

hreoh ond heorogrim,  hringmæl gebrægd

aldres orwena  yrringa sloh

þæt hire wið halse  heard grapode

banhringas bræc  bil eal ðurhwod

fægne flæschoman (1563a–1568a).

The champion of the Scyldings grabbed the belted hilt, fierce and deathly grim. The ring-patterned sword he drew without hope of life, and angrily slew so that it struck her neck hard. It broke the bone-rings [vertebrae]; the sword passed completely through the doomed body.

The close verbal and narrative parallels between Beowulf and Griplur—particularly both heroes trusting in the strength of their hands and their newfound weapon passing through their foes’ neck-bones—cannot reasonably be explained as the result of any direct relationship between the two texts. The idea that Beowulf influenced Scandinavian tradition is now regarded as highly unlikely (Liberman 1986, 355–6). Rather, these links are the result of the close stylistic affinity between Old English and Old Norse legendary poetry on the one hand, and on the other of the durability and conservatism of the story-pattern underlying Beowulf and its Scandinavian analogues. If the testimony of Þorgils saga ok Hafliða is to believed—that Hrómundr’s fight with Þráinn was firmly established in Scandinavian legend in 1119—then the Hrómundr story represents one of the earliest dateable Scandinavian analogues to Beowulf that we possess.

Strife in Sweden

What distinguishes the tradition of Hrómundr Gripsson from other Old Norse accounts of mound-cleansing heroes is the presence of a dynastic conflict in Sweden. Hrómundr’s liege, the Norwegian king Óláfr liðsmannakonungr, is invited to a battle on the frozen surface of Lake Vænir (modern-day Vänern) by two Swedish kings named Haddingr:

Gjǫra þeir boð til Ólafs ótt,

ǫðling skal með sína drótt

koma um vetr á Vænis ís;

vargar skulu þar eiga prís (IV.25).

They dispatched a message to Óláfr vehemently: the prince must come with his troop in winter to the ice of Lake Vænir. There the wolves shall have their prize.

Óláfr slays one of the two kings on the frozen lake, whereupon Hrómundr joins the fray. He slays Helgi Haddingjaskati (‘Haddings’ Champion’), and the Swedish army disperses. Óláfr and Hrómundr undertake a subsequent voyage to Sweden wherein Hrómundr slays the second Haddingr.⁴

Griplur’s account of Hrómundr traveling to Sweden and fighting the two Swedish kings on the frozen surface of Lake Vænir is clearly related to the episode well-known in Scandinavian legend in which Bjarki, under Hrólfr’s authority, aids Aðils in his defeat of Áli on the ice of this same lake. Snorri Sturluson summarizes the circumstances of this conflict in his early thirteenth century Edda:

Sá konungr réð fyrir Uppsǫlum er Aðils hét. Hann átti Yrsu, móður Hrólfs kraka. Hann hafði ósætt við þann konung er réð fyrir Nóregi er Áli hét. Þeir stefndu orrostu milli sín á ísi vatns þess er Væni heitir. Aðils konungr sendi boð Hrólfi kraka, mági sínum, at hann kvæmi til liðveizlu við hann (Faulkes 1998, 58).

A king named Aðils ruled over Uppsala. He married Yrsa, mother of Hrólfr kraki. He had fallen out with the king called Áli who reigned over Norway. They arranged a battle between them on the ice of the lake called Vænir. King Aðils sent a message to his kinsman, Hrólfr kraki, asking that he might come to his assistance.

Hrólfr thereupon dispatches Bjarki to Vænir, just as Hrómundr himself comes to the king’s aid on the ice. It is impossible to say whether or how closely Hrómundr’s participation in the wars against the Swedish Haddingjar is modeled on the Aðils-Áli conflict. The legends differ so markedly here in circumstantial detail that direct borrowing seems improbable. It is possible that the motif of a battle on the frozen surface of Vænir accrued independently to Scylding tradition and to the legend of Hrómundr Gripsson.

Conclusion

Scandinavian Beowulf analogues adduced to date overwhelmingly relate to the poem on a folkloric level. That is to say that many Scandinavian texts preserve monster-fights which inherit from the same basic pattern that was available to the Beowulf poet, but bear no deeper connection to the poem’s legendary fabric or to the protagonist’s heroic biography. The Bjarki story is a rare exception. This legend shows that the basic pattern of a monster-slaying hero who comes to a king’s succor and then fights abroad on his behalf was known in Scandinavia, and could have provided a model for the Old English poem.

Griplur and texts that derive from it represent another such exception. The rímur furnish a monster-fight which presents closer narrative and phrasal parallels to Beowulf’s combat with Grendel’s mother than are to be found in the Bjarki tradition. It also features a dynastic conflict in Sweden which is clearly related to the Scandinavian Aðils-Áli pattern and to Beowulf’s aiding Eadgils against Onela. This discussion has demonstrated that the outline of the first half of the Beowulf narrative—of a Scandinavian hero who proves himself by slaying a fearsome monster and goes on to intervene in Swedish wars—is not restricted to the Bjarki story within Scandinavian heroic legend. Indeed, this pattern existed beyond Scylding tradition altogether. It is clear that the paradigm of a monster-slaying hero who later serves in his liege’s wars was more important and widespread in Scandinavian tradition than previously acknowledged. Griplur and the Hrómundr tradition strengthen the case that a heroic archetype featuring these dual accolades existed in early Scandinavian tradition, and that such an archetype could have provided a model for the Beowulf poet’s hero.

The Hrómundr tradition is instructive: it shows us that certain analogues, though discovered long ago, have the potential to yield much new information of interest to Beowulf studies. It also shows us that the value of Scandinavian Beowulf analogues does not always lie in the configuration of their monster-fights. Sometimes their true worth is waiting to be found in the narrative background (cf. Grant 2022).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The text of Griplur presented here is from Finnur Jónsson 1912, 351–408. All translations are my own.

2 Quotations of Beowulf are taken from Fulk, Bjork and Niles 2008 with length-marks and italics removed.

3 Heroes in Scandinavian Beowulf analogues forsake their weapons for a variety of reasons. Usually this is because of their ineffectiveness, but it can also be done to facilitate hand-to-hand fighting, as in the present example. This same motif is preserved in Beowulf’s battle with Grendel, where the hero sets aside his sword to ensure a fair fight with his foe.

4 Helgi is mentioned in the early thirteenth-century Kálfsvísa (‘Kálfr’s Verse’) as skati Haddingja (‘Haddings’ Champion’) alongside legendary figures such as Aðils and Áli. He is also referenced in the eddic poem Helgakviða Hundingsbana II (‘The Poem of Helgi, Slayer of Hundingr II’) as one of the subjects of a lost Káruljóð (‘Kára’s Poem’). This figure, and probably his involvement with Hrómundr Gripsson, was therefore well established in Scandinavian legend prior the composition of Griplur.